Alumna Randee Mia Berman pens 'Ode to Cornell @ 150'

Randee Mia Berman ’74 paid tribute in verse to Cornell on its sesquicentennial with a new limerick.

In her tribute in verse to Cornell on its sesquicentennial, writer Randee Mia Berman ’74 references everything from beloved professors and Cornell’s founders to the Dairy Bar, Plantations and Collegetown haunts. Naming several of her alma mater’s famous alumni, she observes: “The list is more than a mile / From Kurt Vonnegut to Sandy Weill.”

The poem is a limerick written “somewhat à la Morris Bishop, Cornell’s master of light verse,” Berman says. “I started writing it two months ago, and it just got longer and longer, and I didn’t stop.”

She says she was nostalgic for Cornell and regularly writes commentary in verse for her radio show.

“Morris Bishop was a serious historian, but he had a lighthearted approach, using humor integrated into learning,” Berman says. “The spirit of Cornell is the spirit of synthesis for me, its very interdisciplinary, synthesized approach.”

Berman interviews “musicians, writers, artists, anyone with a passion for what they do” on her weekly program, and is featuring Cornell content this week. A live performance by The Hangovers, originally broadcast April 18, will be rebroadcast Tuesday, April 21, from 8-9 p.m., followed by a segment with professor of government Isaac Kramnick and John Foote ’74 from 9-10 p.m.